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BNP Paribas: Five Ways Bitcoin Could Shake Up Finance

French bank BNP Paribas has published an article titled "Cryptomania" in the latest edition of their in-house magazine. The article, authored by Johann Palychata, a research analyst for BNP Paribas Securities Services, discusses five benefits that Bitcoin could bring to the banking and financial services industry.

The five benefits discussed include:

Using Bitcoin as a means of payment for consumers and merchants.

A settlement system for large corporations.

Securities issuance and servicing.

A global network for fund distribution with the view that investment funds will be the first real banking users of Bitcoin.

Use of the Bitcoin protocol scripting feature for international trades such as using a time limited bitcoin deposit to prove that a buyer is solvent at the time of order.

Just like many articles published by those in the banking industry, the article mistakenly concludes that while Bitcoin is currently used for illegal activities including theft and drug dealing, there is an opportunity for banks to adopt the technology over the next ten years once regulators and politicians control and enable the continued development of Bitcoin, which is a humorous theory at best.

"Bitcoin could become a market-leading technology that will change the way financial systems are engineered. However, there are daily reports of theft, drug dealing and other illegal activities involving crypto-currencies. Some regulators and politicians understand it now and are investigating options to control it while enabling its development. Given crypto-currencies' potential to revolutionise banking practices over the next decade, banks need to invest time and energy to understand how they can best make use of them before other players step in to make that decision for them."